The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the governorship and state houses of assembly elections by one week.
The elections earlier scheduled for Saturday March 11 will now hold on Saturday March 18, the commission said in a statement by its spokesperson and INEC Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, on Wednesday night.
The first round of the elections – the presidential and national assembly elections – held as scheduled on 25th February.
Also read: INEC Fixes dates for Presidential, Gov, National Assembly Candidates’ final list
The statement said the postponement was to make for adequate timing to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the governorship and state assembly polls.
The Presidential Election Tribunal had restrained the commission from tampering with all sensitive materials –including the BVAS – used in the conduct of the presidential election following the request by the the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, respectively, who rejected the outcome of the presidential election.
The opposition candidates, who came second and third respectively, rejected the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, as winner of the election and called for the conduct of another round of elections or be declared the winner.
While INEC approached the court on Monday to seek permission to reconfigure the BVAS, the request was only granted on Wednesday, two days to the initial date of the governorship election.
“While the ruling of the Tribunal makes it possible for the Commission to commence the preparation of the BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it has come far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded,” Mr Okoye said in Wednesday’s statement.
“Consequently, the Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the Governorship and State Assembly elections which will now take place on Saturday 18th March 2023. By this decision, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday 16th March 2023 i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election.”
INEC said the decision was taken to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections “and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.”
The commission, however, stated that it is not against any litigants inspecting the election materials, promising to grant them all the access they require to pursue their cases in court.
“However, we wish to reiterate that the Commission is not against litigants inspecting election materials. Consequently, it will continue to grant all litigants access to the materials they require to pursue their cases in court.
“We wish to reassure all political parties and candidates that the data from the Presidential and National Assembly elections will be backed up and available in INEC cloud facilities, including the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Political parties can apply for Certified True Copies of the backend data of the BVAS. Also, the results on the BVAS will continue to be available on the IReV for interested parties to access.”
But for the latest postponement, the 2023 general election would have gone down in history as the first election held as scheduled since 2015.
In 2019, the election was postponed hours to the commencement of the election, due to logistics and operational problems.
Read the full statement by INEC below.
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION PRESS RELEASE RESCHEDULING OF GOVERNORSHIP AND STATE HOUSES OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Following today’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) on the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the Presidential election held on 25th February, 2023, the Commission met to assess its impact on the Commission’s preparations for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, 11th March 2023.
Nigerians would recall that on 3rd March, 2023, the Presidential EPT had given an ex-parte order for some political parties to inspect materials used for the Presidential election, including the forensic inspection of over 176,000 BVAS used in the election which are located in INEC LGA offices across the country.
The Commission approached the Tribunal to reconsider the order, given that the BVAS Systems were to be deployed for the Governorship and State Assembly elections and that the lack of a clearly defined timeframe for the inspection could disrupt the Commission’s ability to conduct the outstanding elections. For instance, the BVAS can only be activated on the specific date and time of an election.
Having been used for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on 25th February 2023, it is necessary to reconfigure the BVAS for activation on the date of the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
While the ruling of the Tribunal makes it possible for the Commission to commence the preparation of the BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it has come far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded. Consequently, the Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the Governorship and State Assembly elections which will now take place on Saturday 18th March, 2023. By this decision, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday 16th March 2023 i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election.
This decision has not been taken lightly but it is necessary to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25th February, 2023 and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
This has been the practice for all elections, including the period when the Commission was using the Smart Card Readers. However, we wish to reiterate that the Commission is not against litigants inspecting election materials.
Consequently, it will continue to grant all litigants access to the materials they require to pursue their cases in court. We wish to reassure all political parties and candidates that the data from the Presidential and National Assembly elections will be backed up and available in INEC cloud facilities, including the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
Political parties can apply for Certified True Copies of the backend data of the BVAS. Also, the results on the BVAS will continue to be available on the IReV for interested parties to access.
